Palms look great as always. Thanx over and over for the protection method. Its flawless.

Simply awesome! Your posts here, specifically that beautiful trachy of yours, was my inspiration to take the plunge myself and put a mature trachy in ground here in MN.

It's still a little early, but I'll be covering my trachy (7-footer with nearly 4' of 10-11" diameter trunk) within about a week. This will be the first winter in ground here in MN, so I want to err on the safe side since it came from a zone 8b grower. I planted it early this April. Funny, it really seems to like the cooler weather though. More growth when it cooled off. Lowest we have been so far is upper 20s overnight a couple times. My 3.5' needle palm (about a foot of trunk) won't be covered until December sometime.

Keep it up!

Kevin, on picture i saw the washingtonia palm. I'm mistaken or not?

I planted all of my palms and some of my bannanas right in my little lexan and brick greenhouse. I'm going to cover them with boxes and light as you do. Thanks for all of the great advice and photos.

Isn't it getting hard to cover that thing, though? It's geting SO BIG! You are going to need a manlift to get up high enough to put the box on pretty soon.

Great pics Kevin
Good luck with your Washy,that one will be a challenge but well worth it!

Mnpalms
Keep a close eye on your Needle palm.
They are pretty bomb proof but you don't want the leaves to get damaged(esp if it's only been in the ground a year or two)they can take a few years to regrow damaged leaves.

Good luck everybody!

Amazing pics. I hope I manage to keep my outdoor palms alive long enough to see them grow that beautifully. Your palms look like they are living in a zone 9, rather than a bitter cold zone 4.

Thanks alot for sharing, and hope everything goes smoothy this winter :)

Best palm tree winterizing I have seen thus far and the works in zone 4.. wow!

Beautiful Trachy. You've mastered the art of winterizing!

Thanks everyone! mnpalms, I think it's great you're giving it a try in Minnesota. We might have the same winter temperatures. You are right. Windmill palms love the cooler weather. We get really cool in these dry mountain valleys at night even in the summer. It always cools off down to the 50's at night in the summer except for an occasional cloudy night. Serj, yes, my youngest palm is a Washingtonia. I did not attach pics of my Mediterranean Fan Palms. They are at least 6' feet tall and are already covered. Denninmi, I built an 8 foot box for the windmill palm. When it outgrew this box last Fall, I put the box up on a base of several railroad ties sealed by foam rubber. I will need to add several more levels of railroad ties for this winter. Luckily, I grew up on a Dairy Farm and my Dad has a tractor/loader that can lift the box over the palm. It sure is a hassle, but definitely worth it! People are amazed that I have it uncovered out in our November weather.

Your palms look great ...
You have really got the protection down to an art .
I am going to try your methods here in PA this year on a butia and 2 washies . I have gone from minmalist protection the first year , to boxes covered with plastic w/ mini lites on the trees to this but , you sure can't argue the results of the styrofoam boxes.

Here is one of the washies from this summer ...

v

Great look and healthy plants, are you in Central or northern PA; east or west?

I am west of Harrisburg in South Central PA ...

Here is my butia ...

Great pics guys!
No hobby more rewarding than growing palms in your own back yard- esp to us Northerners.

Beautiful yard tikifarmerz6b, it looks like your palms are very happy with their winter protection! I like your cannas and elephant ears too too (is that a canna musafolia?)
Im trying a sabal minor, needle palm, 2 windmill palms, and a pindo palm this winter here in zone 7, and I hope they make it well. I didnt make any styrofoam boxes, but it looks like that method has amazing success!
And I noticed you just joined the fourm and wanted to say
Welcome! :)

Hi Tiki and welcome as TZ7 says,

That butia palm looks magnificent. Was it there more than one year, if so, how did winterizing work? My wife is from SE PA and the climate is noticeably a few degrees milder there.

Tip for T7,
Hi TZ7 - you can purchase that foam insulation board at HD and cut it into squares that fit together. Slip them under the plastic that is over your butia (adds much protection). You also may use a hand held cordless drill and snugly tighten slowly into a crude wood frame(don't over tighten - once ~1/8" (dimpled into foam) in foam its good. Or you may screw foam boards to evenly cut 1 by 3" wood also bought at HD. Don't be afriad to experiment and work with new materials. Cover with palstic and leave small vent for humidity(you know that part:)

Sould pretty doable. I might give it a try, if I can find the time to get all the materials. Ill let you know how it goes, and once my protection plans are "set in stone" Ill post a few pics to show how it all came out (and if its not good enough I might have to do some last minute adjustments). It should be fun to see how it turns out!

I still need to make sure all the outdoor outlets work, and if they dont, that could be a problem.

Thanks for all your help and good luck!

Thanks everyone ...

Tropicalzone7 , that is canna musifolia in the picture to the left of the butia .

Brooklyngreg , the butia was just planted this year . I had a much smaller one in the ground last winter that did just fine in a plastic covered enclosure with mini lights . I had to take it out and pot it up in the spring to make way for another windmill .This one will be getting the full foam box enclosure this year .

Keep us posted on how it does. Could it be the butias are the next tracky in cold tolerance!?

Great plants Kevin, Your Trachy's getting HUGE. Best of luck for this winter.
Tad

Pindos are definately being grown alot farther north now. Feather type palms have always been my favorate, so why wouldnt I want a feather palm (probably the only feather palm) that can survive my winters without extreme full out protection.
Good luck!

Great looking Pindo and pics of your yard, Tikifarmer! I had a beautiful Pindo that lived outside for three years, and did very well, but then it turned yellow and died, not because of the cold weather. I'll have to try one again. Here it is, November 6 in zone 4, and I haven't covered the Trachy yet! Everyone, thanks for your comments, suggestions, pictures and advise.

Kevin

Who knew you can live in a zone 4 and not only have palms grown outside all year, but make it grow without protection longer than it grows with protection. My palms are still a long way from protection, I figure that the weather will probably stay warm enough until at least mid november. One thing I will be doing as of now is protecting it from any moisture (alot of the rains now are pretty chilly, not colder than 40 degrees, but if a freeze followed it I wouldnt be surprised if I lost a cold hardy palm). If I do it right, these palms wont be seeing much precipitation until april.

...ALSO...
We got our first frost this morning. The elephant ears are drooping, but everything else is still doing great. I have oranges, bananas, hibiscus, darceneas, and some others all still outside and even the ones I didnt cover are doing pretty well. Even the spnanish moss I hung on my tree is still thriving out there (not sure how longt hat will last).
When it warms up today Ill have to see for myself and make sure my plants arent pulling any tricks on me (by staying green even though they are frozen to death).

Good luck everyone!